Life from my point of view

Monthly Archives: September 2013

Jackie Chan made headlines again: this time for his plans to open a theme park that focus on Chinese culture that is so commonly seen in Chinese films. Being an avid collector of Chinese antiques and many interesting collectibles, it will be no surprise that this theme park will allow people to see and feel “Jackie Chan”. Indeed a park like this will be a great draw for tourist all over the world, since Jackie Chan is a well known figure from both the Chinese entertainment scene as well as Hollywood entertainment: a la Bruce Lee.

His contribution of antiques and old collectibles will indeed allow tourists to also see and learn about the Chinese culture, which is one of the world’s oldest civilizations. Without a doubt, it should be welcome news to the Chinese government, as well as appeasing to the local (Chinese) netizens, because this would meant no more “country’s treasure” will be leaving their homeland, correct?

Now about the four pieces of antique buildings that Jackie has generously donated to a Singapore University; that has drawn numerous criticisms from Chinese netizens. Their main concern for the relics are simply because “treasures” are being “stolen” and put on display in a foreign country, which may seem like a huge insult to them. But from a CCTV source, it was claimed that Jackie has tried to seek sponsors to help him with the preservation of his collection relics, but no one is willing to offer him the assistance with no ulterior motives. Until some Singapore scholars came, and offered to help with preserving a culture that is also a part of Singapore’s multi-cultural origin (remember Singapore was once a well-known trading port between Asia and the Westerns, thus the multi-cultural nature of the country). Then Jackie was slammed by Chinese netizens for donating something that is originally representative of China’s history to a foreign land.

My opinion on this issue would be: What rights do these netizens have to criticize Jackie when they didn’t bother to offer genuine assistance when it was asked for? To have to wait until someone from another country offering to help, that they feel that they are losing something precious to them, and blaming him for what he did. That is just hogwash, and I believe what Jackie did, he did it with his best interest in the preservation of his precious collection. If a place can offer to help him lengthen his collections lifespan and can allow people to see and learn a bit about its history at no extra charge, why should he give it a miss? Shouldn’t these netizens who made no effort to help be ashamed of themselves that Jackie has to take up offer from another country, because his homeland locals are unwilling to help unless it benefits them? They should take a good look of themselves at a mirror and evaluate on their actions. It’s not to say that it should be totally free-for-all to view, but perhaps a sales booth with proceeds of the sales going to the continued upkeep of the relics, would have made Jackie a very happy person and proud to be Chinese in his homeland. But given what has transpired here, I feel that his enthusiasm could dip a few notches. And I can hardly blame him for that.